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Last week’s UNICEF report on child wellbeing gets one big thing very right. Important parts of government policy are failing children. Read more

When you think of Sweden, does Abba come to mind? What about meatballs or furniture stores? Read more

Some countries have clear advantages during a pandemic. For instance, New Zealand is surrounded by a thousand-kilometre moat. Read more

Cartography geeks might remember the isochronic maps of the late 19th and early 20th century. Covid’s time-warp is making them relevant again, and possibly for rather longer than we might hope. Read more

Unless you closely follow German politics, the name Karl Josef Laumann would mean nothing. And even if you are vaguely familiar with German federal politics, you also will not know much about the Health Minister in the state of North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW). Read more

Turkey is not the country you might expect to read about in a series of columns called “Spotlight on Europe.” Of course, you could make a geographical argument. A small part of Turkey, East Thrace, is European. Read more

Last week, The New Zealand Initiative released a new research report: Pharmac: The Right Prescription? Pharmac’s core role is to get the best health benefits from medicines for New Zealand within a fixed budget. Read more

Last week the EU’s leaders not only signed the organisation’s budget of just over a trillion euros for the next seven years. They also established a €750 billion post-pandemic recovery fund. Read more

An old Australian tourism ad highlighted empty gorgeous beaches, wide-open spaces and asked viewers, “So where the bloody hell are you?” The ad was top-of-mind as our family toured the South Island over school holidays. Up to a million Kiwis live overseas. Read more